Unknown

The week after the Lord’s Day of the Holy Cross, third Lord’s Day in the Forty Days, has me thinking more than usual about the Cross, what it means, and all the ways it impacts our lives.

In reading a bit of history today, in an account of the 1901 world’s fair in Buffalo, New York, there was made mention of the fact that William McKinley, president of the United States, was assassinated at this expo. An anarchist shot him, but he did not die immediately. He was operated on to remove the bullet by surgeons in a medical pavilion set up at the fair, under sunlight reflected onto the operating table by reflector. Though the exhibition buildings were covered in electric lights, ironically no electrical power was supplied to the medical tent. The doctors thought their surgery was successful and expected the president to recover.

On the morning of September 12, he felt strong enough to receive his first food orally since the shooting—toast and a small cup of coffee. However, by afternoon he began to experience discomfort and his condition rapidly worsened. McKinley began to go into shock. On September 14, 1901, feast day of the Holy Cross, eight days after he was shot, he died at age 58 from gangrene surrounding his wounds. His last words were ‘It is God's way; His will be done, not ours.’ Here was an ordinary man, a Christian whose faith was perhaps known to God alone—as president his faith and everything else about him was under public scrutiny—but with his last breath he formed words of trust, going out of this world on the wings of his testimony.

Unknown, though known to many, yet unknown as he really was. The same is true of all of us, of any man, woman or child. We are really nobody special, not even when we are president and in everyone’s eyes, we are still nobody, we are unknown. But One does know us, and His Son has declared it to us, ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows’
(Matthew 10:29-31). That we are known, not by other men, but by God, that is what is important. This is why with the thief we must be intent to steal paradise if we can, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom’ (Luke 23:42). The slain president, a man as unknown as any of us, had faith.

‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ Romans 10:8-13